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Nigerians to pay more as UK announces hike in visa fees, health surcharge

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Rishi Sunak, the UK prime minister, says the surcharge paid for the state-funded national health service (NHS) by visa applicants from around the world will “increase significantly”.

Sunak, who spoke on Thursday during a Downing Street press conference, said migrants will also pay more for visa applications.

The development is set to hit Nigeria with one of the highest numbers of migrants to the UK.

The British-Indian leader, who was under pressure to accept the recommendation of an independent review of pay for teachers, police, junior doctors and other public sector workers, confirmed a hike between 5 percent and 7 percent across the board.

“If we’re going to prioritise paying public sector workers more, that money has to come from somewhere else because I’m not prepared to put up people’s taxes and I don’t think it would be responsible or right to borrow more because that would just make inflation worse,” Sunak said.

“So, what we have done are two things to find this money. The first is, we are going to increase the charges that we have for migrants who are coming to this country when they apply for visas and indeed something called the immigration health surcharge (IHS), which is the levy that they pay to access the NHS.

“All of those fees are going to go up and that will raise over £1 billion. So, across the board visa application fees are going to go up significantly and similarly for the IHS.

Sunak added that this was “entirely right” as these fees have not been increased recently.

He said the government believes it is appropriate given that the costs have risen since the last hike.

According to Sunak, this move will have no effect on inflation because there would be no new borrowing or spending to fund the increases.

He added that the funds would have to be sourced elsewhere.

“Teachers’ pay rises would be funded by a reallocation of the existing department budget, ” he said.

TheCable earlier reported that Junior doctors under the British Medical Association (BMA) have embarked on a five-day strike over their demand for increased salaries.

They had previously gone on strike from June 14 to June 17, for 96 hours in April and 72 hours in March

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Football

Fulham 0-2 Chelsea: Mudryk, Broja strike to earn Blues their second league win of the season

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Chelsea bagged two first-half goals to seal a crucial win over West London rivals Fulham at Craven Cottage and move up to 11th on the Premier League table.

The Blues flew out of the blocks as they debuted their new Infinite Athlete kit and created the first chance of the match after only 80 seconds, but Armando Broja could not capitalise.

Chelsea looked bright with Enzo Fernandez conducting affairs, and they picked the Cottagers apart.

Mykhailo Mudryk was looking electric and dangerous. The Ukrainian winger opened the scoring on 18 as he controlled a pass from Levi Colwill before slotting the ball beyond Bernd Leno.

It was Mudryk’s first Premier League goal following his £88 million move from Shakhtar Donetsk in January. And within seconds, Chelsea had their second.

Tim Ream had a moment to forget as he gave the ball away to Cole Palmer. The young English playmaker then slipped Broja in, but Ream hit the ball off the Albanian striker as the ball trickled past Leno.

Fulham tried to find gaps behind Marc Cucurella and Axel Disasi on the right side of Chelsea’s defence, but it was not working. Chelsea controlled the game and held their two-goal going into the break.

In the second 45, Fulham came out with more attacking poise, and it helped that Mudryk went off with a knock, giving Fulham the impetus to come forward, but Chelsea’s defence stood resolute.

Vinicius and Alex Iwobi came on for Fulham and helped their side find spaces beyond Chelsea’s backline, but the Boys in Blue defended well and showed they were still dangerous.

Ian Maatsen, on for Mudryk, hit the post, and Leno had to be quick to smother Fernandez’s rebound effort. Fulham forced Chelsea to work for their lead, but Mauricio Pochettino’s men looked up to it.

Substitute Tom Cairney created a lovely chance for Sasa Lukic. However, Robert Sanchez stuck out a brilliant leg to save the effort and keep his side in it.

On 83, Willian tried an effort from outside the box, but it did not cause any problems for Sanchez as Chelsea ran out 2-0 victors

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General

Tribunal verdict: Governor rejects judgement, calls for calm

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Nasarawa State Governor, His Excellency, Engr. Abdullahi A. Sule has rejected Monday’s judgment of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal delivered in Lafia.

While speaking to teeming supporters of the APC at the Government House, Lafia, Governor Sule says the judgement will be challenged at the appeal court.

He however call on the people of the state to remain calm and law abiding.

Engr. Sule promised to continue discharging his duties as the Executive Governor with more vigor.

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Football

Man Utd winger Anthony in contention for Galatasaray UEFA champions league clash

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Erik ten Hag has confirmed that Antony could feature for Manchester United against Galatasaray after rejoining his ranks at Old Trafford.

The Brazil international forward was granted indefinite leave by the Red Devils following a series of alarming allegations made against him by former girlfriend Gabriela Cavallin.

Antony has been back in his homeland since then, allowing him to meet with police forces in Sao Paulo.

He returned to England last week and has held five hours of talks with Greater Manchester Police.

The 23-year-old winger maintains his innocence – having also faced accusations from two other women.

United have allowed him to focus on off-field matters of late, but revealed ahead of a Premier League meeting with Crystal Palace that Antony had been given a green light to return to training and was once again available for selection.

He has only taken in one session since then, suggesting that he will be short on match fitness, but Ten Hag says the South American is in his thoughts ahead of the Champions League group stage meeting with Galatasaray on Tuesday.

The Dutch coach has said: “Antony will be in consideration but yesterday was his first time back in team training. We have a final training, then we’ll make a decision.”

Ten Hag added when delivering an update on Lisandro Martinez – with the World Cup-winning Argentine defender still struggling with a long-standing foot injury: “I can confirm, yeah. Licha Martinez will undergo surgery and the team news is Antony can probably return.”

Antony’s last appearance for United came in the club’s 3-1 defeat at Arsenal on September 3.

He was removed from the Brazil squad for the last round of international fixtures and has not registered a goal for club or country since April 16.

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